Today we’d like to introduce you to Brianna Watts.
Brianna, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started out with one company, Brianna Watts Consulting and Services in 2018 and recently launched two additional service-based companies in 2019. In 2018, I graduated with my master’s from Florida International University in Higher Education Administration. During my last year of graduate school, my amazing bosses and mentors took me through a very effective and tedious career search program where I developed my own career documents from scratch and strategized my job search.
They provided unlimited support, mentorship, and resources during this two-semester time period. I was able to land several job interviews across the country at top universities and I was even heavily recruited from well-known leaders in the field. It was evident to me that a strong resume, cover letter and networking was the key to a successful job search and most importantly landing a job you love. I begin to notice my friends, peers and associates did not have the same access to resources and support that I did while I was conducting my job search and I saw of them becoming discouraged in their search.
I volunteered on many occasions to edit, revise and critique their resumes and cover letters. I took it a step further and shared my guidebooks and advice that I received during my time in graduate school. After seeing positive results, they receiving invitations to interview, I decided to offer my service to others, still free of charge. Around December of 2018, the demand increased significantly (I did not intend on starting a business around resume writing and job search at all), so the only way I could manage the load was to slap a price on it in order to prioritize orders and weed out who was serious or not.
In 2019, I raised my prices a little bit more because I realized how much work and brainpower went into developing and editing resumes. I felt empty after spending hours and days on resumes and only profiting $25-50. I still continued editing resumes all the way through 2019 while working a 9-5. I started attending workshops and conferences to gain more knowledge on resume writing because I knew there was more to learn. I discovered that career services and resume writing were its own hug entities and that people have been doing this for 25 plus years. I was blown away.
After working my first two jobs out of graduate school, dealing with micromanagers, having my cell phone hacked by a then trusted professional at work, and just not being happy at work, I decided to invest in a business coach to take my business to the next level. I spent a lot of money to work with an amazing business coach for 90 days and it was the best decision I ever made in my business journey. To make a long story short, I now have social media pages, a website, an intern, and so much business knowledge to run a full-blown career services company.
I have completed hundreds of resumes, a hand full of cover letters, optimized LinkedIn profiles, job interview prep sessions and other coaching services. I am proud to say I have an extremely high success rate as far as my customers receiving invitations to interview, job offers and successfully pivoting careers. Since working, I have fallen into creating multiple businesses after identifying a need to solve issues in my community and leave a positive impact on the lives of others.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road has not been smooth at all. When I accepted my first job offer, moved out of the state to a state where I knew no one and that was not young-professional friendly, I found myself resenting my move. To me, the job did not meet my expectations based on multiple rounds of interviews. I wanted to be in a more impactful and student facing role. My role was also new so I was kind of the Genia pig figuring out how to make things makes sense as I went along. I don’t think that job was a good fit for me from the role itself to the people I had to report to. There weren’t many people who looked like me at work.
That was challenging and the few people that did, I remember someone saying that I should connect with other people other than them. I went home to an empty apartment every single day after work. No one else and no furniture besides a cheap bed and mattress I bought from Wal mart, my work desk, TV and a futon. I took a cheap flight home at least twice a month to see my family and friends. I knew I wasn’t staying there long so there was no need for me to invest in furnishing the apartment. Later on, I was able to land another job back in Miami, FL so I was super excited to be moving back to the state.
One of my greatest challenges came when I became a victim of hacking. My personal cell phone was hacked by someone I knew. I can’t say much about it right now but the situation was not handled with great care. There were many nights I could not sleep. I still walk around now checking my surroundings to ensure my safety. It’s unfortunate to know someone basically cloned your phone. We keep everything on our phone. All of our personal information and secrets. I felt violated. I still feel like I’m being watched and that the person can tap into my phone at any time. I’ll digress there. I am grateful for the experience nonetheless because I am still alive and this experience definitely opened my eyes and pushed me closer to God and into my God-given purpose. That is serving through my three businesses all which have different target audiences but all provide services.
Please tell us more about your work. What do you do? What do you specialize in? What sets you apart from competition?
I provide career services including resume writing, job search strategy, and interview preparation. I write cover letters from time to time but they are not my favorite because they are time-consuming and require a lot of brainpower. It’s hard to offer that much brainpower when you work full-time, workout 3xs a week, host a podcast and enjoy a busy social life. I am most proud when my clients send me text messages and emails about them landing interviews and job positions that they’ve dreamed of being in.
I think what sets me apart is that I care about my clients being successful from their resume to their job search and accepting the role of their dreams. I don’t care to just help them get a job, I care to help to land a role they love! That’s what most important. If you don’t enjoy your job or the company you work for, you will be miserable and that is no way to spend 40-60 hours a week. Life is too short to be unhappy at work because it spills over into your personal life.
Sixx Figure Society is a company I just launched with my god-sister, and it was created to help aspiring and current entrepreneurs build sixx-figure businesses by providing coaching services, connecting them to proper resources and hosting impactful networking events.
Watts Academy of Success, Inc. is a leadership and mentoring nonprofit that I founded to give back to my hometown, Sanford, FL. I want to serve as role model to young girls in my hometown, mentor them, expose them to life beyond our city and help them be successful in life now and after they graduate high school. I plan to do so much through this platform. I am excited.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
My future plans are to work for myself full-time through those three businesses. It is going to be hard and I will be busy but I will be doing exactly what I love, what I am good at, and what I am most passionate about. I am looking forward to full-time entrepreneurship one day. That is going to be the biggest change in my life because I don’t know exactly how things will pan out for me but I have a lot more faith than fear at the time. I know God will take care of me. I have manifested everything I have or experienced so far.
Contact Info:
- Website: briannanwatts.com sixxfiguresociety.com (coming soon) wattsacademyofsuccess.org (coming soon)
- Email: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
- Instagram: @briannanwatts @sixxfiguresociety @wattsacademyofsuccessinc
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/briannawattsllc
- Twitter: twitter.com/briannanwatts
Image Credit:
RTW Photography- Lavell D. Monger-Harris
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